Ableism
Ableism is an axis of oppression that privileges the able-minded and able-bodied over disabled people. (coming soon) Abled Privilege Abled privilege is a privilege that combines both able-bodied and able-minded privilege: the privilege of being having a body and mind that are considered typical and healthy. AutisticHoya shares an "abled privilege checklist": https://autistichoya.files.wordpress.com/2016/03/brief-abled-privilege-checklist-mar-2016.pdf Toxic Ableism (coming soon) Ableism exists at all levels of Capitalist society. However, often the most perniciously toxic elements of it are the ones that mainstream culture has normalised to the point that its toxicity is completely lampshaded and victims of it are gaslit into believing that they are the toxic ones. This occurs throughout the psychological and psychiatric institutions of Western society, where survivors of abuse and trauma are made to feel like monsters for their mental state and unhealthy coping habits. The Pathologization of Trauma (more soon) Treating people with personality disorders as problems. Despite personality divergences being a result of childhood trauma. More... Example: https://donotlink.it/QkQq Title: "I'm a criminologist and I've that there is a psychopath in my family" Body: "I dislike this family member, who lacks basic living skills and hasn't found employment, self-harms, has no friends and lacks basic empathy. ... Since becoming a criminologist, I've learnt how to armchair diagnose people whose traits are socially undesirable, but it's tricky because I've also realised lots of the same diagnostic traits in myself..." Conclusion: "But, I also learned that if you worry whether you might be a psychopath, then you can't be one, so I'm safe and she is evil." Publish to "feminist" website. Earn money. Humiliate family member. Publicly encourage other people to armchair diagnose their family members as psychopaths... Autism Examples of anti-autistic Ableism (TW: examples of invalidation, erasure, stigmatization, pathologization, etc.) Asperger’s History of Overdiagnosis "Many people, now inappropriately labeled as Aspies, make the world a richer, more interesting place. Their quirky absorptions in, say, physics, baseball stats or investment strategies add enormously to human advancement. Unlike adults with a Peter Pan syndrome who never move beyond adolescence, children and young adults with significant social disabilities tend to grow quite effectively into their adult lives. Their seriousness and singularity of focus fit more compatibly with the interests of older adults rather than the interests of their childhood or young adult peers. For better or worse, though, Asperger syndrome has become a part of our cultural landscape. Comments about a person’s having “a touch of Asperger’s” seem to be part of everyday conversations. Even an episode of “South Park” last year was devoted to Asperger syndrome. We can only hope that better physiological markers distinguishing between the autism-spectrum disorders and pure social disabilities can stem this tide of ever more pathologizing. But, as Martha Denckla, a pediatric neurologist at Johns Hopkins University, has lamented, the only Americans in the future who will perhaps not be labeled as having a touch of Asperger syndrome will be politicians and lobbyists. Members of the political establishment may have other kinds of psychopathology; but, unlike the rest of us, they at least cannot be thought of as Aspies." Review of "To Siri With Love" by Twitter user @KaelanRhy In Social Justice Social justice communities tend to highlight issues of race, class and gender, but often sideline issues of disability. https://goingrampant.tumblr.com/post/163318682981/6-ways-feminism-can-be-accessible-to-autistic "3. Don’t demonize masculine autistic traits - In the struggle against creepy entitled guys, there is a tendency to lump autistic traits in with their warning signs. Autistic people have difficulty with body language, may have difficulties with articulation, and often overlook tact. That can lead to things like too much eye-contact, which can be interpreted as aggressive or a sexual advance; not enough eye-contact, which is interpreted as shifty behavior; taking up too much space, including “manspreading” and getting fat, as might produce a “neckbeard”; rambling about their interests, which is interpreted as dominating the conversation or “mansplaining”; and being too overt about sexual interest, not knowing how to play the elaborate game of alluding but not too distantly, being assertive but not too much, and when “coffee” means “sex” or is just “coffee”. Autistic women have the same behavior, but it doesn’t receive the same demonization due to sexism imbuing men with an aggressive characterization and women with a passive characterization. Typically, feminists are against that, but they tend to forget when staring at “weird people”. Keep in mind that a standard stereotype of an anti-feminist is a “neckbeard fat nerd with passionate interests who doesn’t know when socially appropriate to shut up who doesn’t understand the most basic of cues women broadcast to signal disinterest, and who lives in his mother’s basement the ability to perform in society because of mental issues”, demonizing autistic traits instead of the anti-feminist beliefs such people may have." Category:Oppression Category:Disability Category:Intersectionality